Melania-Loredana Muresan

Universitatea Tehnica Cluj-Napoca, Centrul Universitar Baia Mare

Group: LRE II

The
Scarlet By Nathaniel Hawthorne
“Happiness is as a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our
grasp, but which if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.”-Nathaniel
H. Letter
Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American short story writer and novelist. His short stories
include "My Kinsman, Major Molineux" (1832), "Roger Malvin's Burial" (1832), "Young
Goodman Brown" (1835) and the collection Twice-Told Tales. He is best known for his
novels The Scarlet Letter (1850) and The House of the Seven Gables (1851). His use of
allegory and symbolism make Hawthorne one of the most studied writers.
He was born on July 4, 1804, in Salem Massachusetts. In 1630 he emigrated to America
and settled in Salem, Massachusetts, where he became a judge. William had a son, John
Hathorne, who was one of three judges during the Salem Witch Trials in the 1690s.
Hawthorne later added a “w” to his name to distance himself from this side of the family.
Hawthorne was the only son of Nathaniel and Elizabeth Clark Hathorne (Manning). His
father was a sea captain and unffortunately he died in 1808 of yellow fever while at sea. The
family was left with meager financial support and moved in with Elizabeth’s wealthy
brothers. Nathaniel’s appetite for reading developed from a young age after a leg injury that
left him immobile for several months and set his sights on becoming a writer.
While attending college, Hawthorne missed his mother and two sisters terribly and upon
graduation, returned home for a 12-year stay. During this time, he began to write with purpose
and soon found his “voice” self-publishing several stories, among them "The Hollow of the
Three Hills" and "An Old Woman’s Tale." By 1832, he had written "My Kinsman, Major
Molineux" and "Roger Malvin’s Burial," two of his greatest tales and in 1837, Twice Told
Tales. Though his writing brought him some notoriety, it didn’t provide a dependable income
and for a time he worked for the Boston Custom House weighing and gaging salt and coal.
With mounting debt and a growing family, Hawthorne moved to Salem. A life-long
Democrat, political connections helped him land a job as a surveyor in the Salem Custom
House in 1846, providing his family some needed financial security. However, due to political
favoritism, Hawthorne lost his appointment. when Whig President Zachary Taylor was
elected. The dismissal turned into a blessing giving him time to write his masterpiece, The
Scarlet Letter, the story of two lovers who clashed with the Puritan moral law. The book was
one of the first mass-produced publications in the United States and its wide distribution made
Hawthorne famous.
The Scarlet Letter takes place in 17th century colonial America, but it was written in
the 19th century. In the introduction, Hawthorne finds a scarlet letter and a manuscript about
what happened to Hester Prynne while he's working in a New England custom house. We also
learn about Hester's imprisonment and the child she birthed while incarcerated, a product of
 Melania-Loredana Muresan
Universitatea Tehnica Cluj-Napoca, Centrul Universitar Baia Mare
Group: LRE II
an affair with an unknown man. During the rising action, Hester, on a scaffold with her
daughter Pearl, refuses to name her lover who happens to be Arthur Dimmesdale, a local
minister. Chillingworth, Hester's husband, thought to be dead, arrives at the Massachusetts
Colony but hides his identity by becoming a local doctor and pursuing Dimmesdale who he
suspect as the father. Hester keeps custody of Pearl and gains the town's respect. Dimmesdale
however is sickened from his secret guilt. Later Dimmesdale stands with Hester and Pearl on
a scaffold and a meteor leaves an A in the sky for all to see.. Hester tells Dimmesdale of
Chillingworth's identity. The two then plot to leave the colony starting a new life together
with their daughter, Pear. At the climax, Dimmesdale confesses the affair after giving a big
election day ceremony, the best of his entire life. He then rips, open his shirt and shows a
symbol that's been hinted at more and more strongly all throughout the scarlet letter. He dies
on the scaffold before he can leave with Hester and Pearl. During the falling action,
Chillingworth dies, leaving a fortune to Pearl. We also hear disputing accounts about what
symbol was actually on Dimmsdale's chest. Hester and Pearl leave Boston together. During
the resolution, Hester returns, lives out her life and dies in the colony. She is buried near
Dimmesdale and it is marked an A grave for the two of them who are finally united in death
under that symbol that publicly and privately marked their entire lives.
Nathaniel Hawthorne makes good use of the dramatic irony in his novel. He regards
human beings as originally imperfect creatures. The dehumanization in a Puritan society in
the novel is criticized with the method of tragic irony which is closely related to a dualistic
view of life. Most of the characters are Puritans. They are innocent and try to build an ideal
society in their own way. Such a perfect Puritan community holds its own secrets and sin
within each member. This creates irony or hypocrisy and has each person feel guilty. In the
novel, Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chilligworth are isolated from a normal society and they
suffer from the various aspects of sin. Hypocritical action to conceal their secret sins makes
them collapse. Although Hester feels humility and embarrassment because of her sin, she is
spiritually free. When Dimmesdale finally uncovers his sin to the people around the scaffold,
they refuse to believe that he is sinner like Hester. The fact that Dimmsdale is the vulnerable
minister and a secret sinner results in an endless maze of irony. Dimmesdale’s dual identity is
shown in Hester wearing the shameful token of the scarlet letter on her breast and in
Chillingworth with his secret revenge for Dimmsdale. The irony of Dimmesdale’s situation is
shown in the fact that he becomes imperfect by pretending to be perfect. Dimmesdale tries to
appear to be a perfect man, for he thinks there is absolute good and evil in the world. By using
tragic irony, Hawthorne builds up the plot which gives us constant interest in his novel.
In my opinin, Hawthorne builds a whole new world and strong characters in ths is
book. Hester is not just a woman in love. She has a strong will and fights for her love. She
knows that the truth will destroy Dimmesdale’s career so she chooses to be blamed and
judged by the orders just to make sure that he is safe. However, Dimmesdale is a moral man
and the symbol that appeared on his chest shows the guilt that was killing him from the inside
out.
Thus, The Scarlet Letter is chiefly composed of tragic irony, and the author’s purposes
are well represented by it.